Hipkins shows his quality as PM in securing a bounce for Labour, but now comes the hard part

Chris  Hipkins has surprised even  some of his  closest  friends  and  backers with the  bounce he has  secured  for Labour  in  public polls  since  he  became Prime Minister. He  has  been put to the test since  he  took  over  from Jacinda  Ardern  in the  top job, and has  shown a  quality that  was  well hidden in  his  previous  portfolios.

It’s  not  just the long  hours  he is  putting into  the  job, but  projecting the human touch  to those  hard hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, or the other disasters of recent weeks as well. Then this week he  was steering the  government in decisions which, as  he  said, will  enable pensioners to start seeing a bit extra in their bank accounts from next month.

For couples over 65, their superannuation payments will now be higher by an extra $102.84 per fortnight between them, while single people living alone will receive an extra $66.86 each payment.

Hipkins  said the package of “bread and butter support” would help people who were “really feeling the bite from the rise in the cost of living”.

News splash from Nash: he is taking a lash (at long last) at slash – but it’s not so flash Govt will wait for inquiry’s guidance

Buzz  from the Beehive

Pressure had been mounting on the East Coast long before Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle for the Gisborne District Council to tighten forestry regulations after tonnes of logs and debris clogged waterways during flooding.

Extensive flooding in Marlborough and Tasman last year fortified concerns about the laxity of environmental controls on exotic forestry.

Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor wrote for Newsroom that the old method of allowing large scale clear-felling at harvest on erosion-prone land is no longer fit-for-purpose in a climate changing world.

Having large swathes of hill country denuded of stabilising vegetation for several years between forestry cycles is exacerbating run-off volumes and flood velocity, as well as vastly increasing sediment loads entering the coastal marine area. Sediment smothers and kills marine life.

U-turn on fuel taxes could pump up poll support for Hipkins and Co but the poor – perhaps – won’t notice who benefits most

Buzz from the Beehive

Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours.

The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues.

His statement was headed –

Cost of living support extended for families and businesses

The Government is providing extra cost of living support to families and businesses, delivering on new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ promise of a greater focus on the issues facing New Zealanders right now.

The timing was exquisite.

Tribute has been paid to Titewhai Harawira but Beehive has missed govt response to the CPI and Crown Accounts

Buzz from the Beehive

Hurrah.  Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information.

It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated.

So, too, would have been his reaction to  the latest Crown financial statements.

But no.

The only statement posted on the Beehive website since January 19 came from  Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson, who paid tribute to Titewhai Harawira –

Hipkins enthuses about the Fourth National Action Plan – but who remembers the first three?

Buzz from the Beehive

Just two statements had been posted on the Beehive website, when we made our daily check this morning.  This suggested the PM and her ministers were easing up on their workloads as Christmas Day nears. 

But two more statements have been posted since then, one of them grandly headlined:

Open Government Fourth National Action Plan released

New Zealand’s Fourth National Action Plan under the Open Government Partnership was made public today.

This served to remind us of something we had forgotten, if ever we had taken much notice in the first place:  there must have been First, Second and Third National Action Plans under the Open Government Partnership. 

Whatever happened to them? 

We were cheered to learn Chris Hipkins  proclaim: 

While our Finance Minister enjoys the Games, our living costs are high jumping and too many Kiwis are tripping on the hurdles

Deputy  Prime  Minister  Grant Robertson had  some  fun  last  week  at  the  expense  of  National  leader  Christopher Luxon  for  holidaying  in Hawaii  while  a  Facebook entry  indicated  he  was in  Te  Puke.

This  week  Robertson  is  relishing the  spectacle of  the  Commonwealth  Games, and  the   achievements  of  New Zealand’s  sports stars.

He  may  even  succeed  in  forgetting,  at  least  for  a  short  while,  the  economic  mess that is mounting in  NZ – not  that   he  will   concede  he  has  had anything  to  do  with   inflation  breaking  into a  gold-medal-winning gallop  on his  watch.

Moreover, he  keeps  insisting it  has  already  past  its  prime.

Only  last  week  he  was  telling  his  acolytes  in  Parliament that  while the  government is acutely aware that many New Zealanders are doing it tough,

“… we are taking action to support them.

“We’ve boosted the incomes of seniors, students in low-income families, while a million New Zealanders are receiving the winter energy payment. From next Monday, the targeted cost of living payment will deliver around $27 a week for low and middle income New Zealanders aged 18 years and over who don’t get the winter energy payment.

“In response to high fuel prices, which have been significantly driven by the war in the Ukraine, we have cut the fuel excise duty and road-user charges and halved public transport costs.

Poverty and pessimism – slump in consumer confidence brings more unpalatable news to Robertson and the Govt

When the  country’s  newspapers devote  their  cover  pages  to  advertisements  captioned “The  cost  living crisis”, it’s not something  that  makes palatable  reading  for  government ministers.

When the advertisements come from an organisation like Kidscan, appealing for donations “to make sure children in poverty get the food they urgently need this  winter”, those ministers may well choke on  their morning lattes.

Prime Minister Jacinda  Ardern  has  other  weighty  issues  on  her  mind – at least for now – as  she  prepares to fly off  to  Europe to  talk  trade  in  Brussels with the  EU and  security in  Madrid   with  NATO.

But  for deputy Prime  Minister Grant Robertson,  left  to  mind the  shop while she is away, the media’s highlighting of a cost-of-living crisis and the persistent challenge of child poverty could  dampen  his normally  cheery  optimism on  the  state  of  the  economy.

Yet  another  dampener would be the latest Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence Survey, which has  recorded the lowest reading on NZ consumer confidence since the survey began in 1988.

Latest food price figures reinforce the economic-performance criticisms Opposition can fling at the Govt

“America’s next downturn  may have a mild flavour—but a bitter aftertaste”.  So  ran a headline in The Economist.

Juxtapose that to New Zealand, and  we  could be  served  a  double dose  of the bitter  aftertaste.

The  problem  here is  that the  authorities apparently didn’t  see it  coming and  now,  as  it  arrives, they could  be  slow  out of  the blocks in dealing  with it.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern kept  denying  there was a  cost-of-living  “crisis”.

After its impact nevertheless could be seen to be hitting  home, the Finance Minister  tacked on  to the  budget  some  measures he  hoped  would assuage  any  pain being  felt by  New Zealanders — although  the  queues  at  foodbanks  were already  lengthening.

The latest food price index shows a 0.7% increase in food prices for the month of May.  Food now costs 8.9% more than at the time of the last election and fruit and veges cost 16% more.

That  has  given Opposition parties a  free  hit  at the  expense of the governing party.

Robertson tackles the cost-of-living crisis which the PM did not recognise – now let’s see if he can steer clear of recession

Prime  Minister Jacinda  Ardern  early in March  insisted  there was  no  cost-of-living “crisis”  in New  Zealand. Now  her  right-hand  man, Grant Robertson,  has presented  a  budget which he  proudly  claims  deals  with that  very  same “crisis”, giving  away $1 billion in an emergency cost-of-living  package.

About 2.1 million New Zealanders will get a $350  payment spread  over  three months, while fuel tax  cuts  and half-price  public  transport continue  for  another two  months.

Will  that  be enough  to relieve those  suffering  in what Labour now  accepts   is a crisis?  And  will  it  halt  Labour’s  slide  in  the  polls.

On  that,  opinions  are mixed, with Labour’s  partner  in government  being the most  expressive  in  their  doubts.  Here’s what a Green Party press statement had  to  say  on the  subject:

Why several Labour MPs (whose futures are in electoral jeopardy) will be hoping for miracles in this year’s Budget

Finance Minister Grant Robertson managed  to  put  a  bold  face on  his  fiscal management  last week  when he  presented  the  latest set of Crown accounts, saying they   “are continuing to reflect the strong position New Zealand is in to manage the challenging global environment”.

Tax revenue in the  nine months  to March  was $2.7 bn above forecast at $78.6bn, due to better-than-expected corporate profits and a strong jobs market.  This was partly offset by lower GST returns.

Core Crown expenses were close to forecast at $92.6bn.

The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) deficit was $8.1bn, $4.1bn  below that forecast in December’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.

Robertson commented approvingly:

“This result shows the strong position New Zealand finds itself in, despite the uncertainty and volatility of the Ukraine war, the pandemic and ongoing supply chain disruptions in critical trading hubs like China. It is further evidence that our strong health response has been the right one for the economy”.

Robertson concedes there are significant challenges for families and business right now.